


Where She Stops, Nobody Knows

by jazzfic



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-02
Updated: 2014-09-02
Packaged: 2018-02-15 21:06:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2243499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jazzfic/pseuds/jazzfic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All through high school she’d dug her heels into the dirt and tried not to trip up, towards <i>him</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where She Stops, Nobody Knows

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Prompts In Panem colours week, day 5: Blue.

The air smelled of cut grass. She took in a breath, holding it in her lungs as if she could taste it, letting it out with a shudder. Oh, it was such a relief to be out here! All though English she’d had half an ear on the distant purr of Cray the groundskeeper’s ride-on mower and half on Miss. Trinket’s lecture on the motivation behind Mr. Rochester keeping a poor mad woman in his attic. Unlike most of her classmates Katniss had already read _Jane Eyre_ – well, read it when she could drag the worn paperback out of Prim’s hands; that girl loved words more than she did her bleating goat, and the goat was loved too much already – so she was able to allow herself the luxury of tuning out the class and concentrating instead on the hypnotic sounds the motor. 

Gale told her she had a weird streak. One of them was liking machines and dirt and muck more than people. Which was mostly true, she supposed. She didn’t care. The short list of things Katniss Everdeen cared (truly, deeply) about was in her eyes a private one, but for anyone who knew her, even a little bit closely, that list was practically written out across her body: 

Sister, mom, home, the woods, Gale (maybe). The order shifted sometimes. 

And then there was another list. Not of what she loved, but what made her curious. That really was secret, as large and precious a secret she could hold close to herself. It was a list of things she’d run away from, if she could, only to run back and gaze at them with apprehension and longing.

Sunlight warmed her shoulders and the exposed skin where she’d drawn her hair into a ponytail. Katniss shouldered her backpack, setting off around the first of two large fields, in the direction of the school boundary and the hole in the fence where she took her shortcut home. In the distance she could see the boys running out to begin soccer practice, and she felt the same twisting sensation return to her stomach, the one that made her speed up her pace so they wouldn’t notice as she passed. It was a ridiculous thought, seeing as they were practically on the other side of the county, but she did it anyway. The sound of her sneakers was light as a feather across the grass and she felt spurred on, like the sun was fueling her batteries and making her want to break into a run. 

Distracted by this, she didn’t see the lone figure in the criss-cross shadow of the goal square. When the “Hey” sounded in her left ear she nearly jumped like a startled rabbit. 

She spun around. Standing there in loose white shorts and an electric blue strip that looked about two sizes too big for him, arms crossed over his chest and a small smile on his lips, was Peeta Mellark. 

“Sorry,” he said. “I...” But the smile dropped when he noticed the way she was glaring at him, and he finished, in a softer tone. “You looked like you were on a mission.”

“What?”

He made a flying gesture with one hand, out to where the woods encroached on the side of the field. She followed with her eyes and bit her lip. When she looked back his gaze was still on her, brighter now. Cute. That’s what Prim called him. And he was that, effortlessly, cute in the way a golden retriever was cute, or a waddling penguin was cute. Katniss hated the word, just as she hated that the feeling had come running back, twisting a mean little hole inside her as she stared at this boy and the dumb lopsided shape his lips formed when they hitched into a smile.

Again. Smile, smile, smile. What was he so happy about now?

She sighed, walking back towards the goal. The other players were doing drills, mad running back and forth. “What happened?” she asked. “They stick you in time out or something?”

Peeta laughed. “Or something,” he said. He walked to the netting, so they were inches apart and made a show of looking around as if divulging some great scandal. “I may have tripped up Thresh on purpose. Don’t tell Coach, okay? Guy has it in for me already.”

She folded her arms. “Liar.” Everybody and their dog knew Peeta was the star out there. The athletic staff practically tripped over themselves on a daily basis just to wrangle the kid onto their team. “They adore you and you know it.”

The moment the words were out she wanted to suck them back in. She felt heat rise in her cheeks and refused to look at him. She knew what he was doing. Couldn’t be be sincere and strong and all... nice with somebody who was actually worth his time? Couldn’t he go flirt with the air around them?

“I gotta go,” she mumbled, picking up her backpack. She looked him over, at his body, feeling a little separate from herself. Maybe she really was floating. “That shirt’s too big for you, by the way.”

His voice rang out behind her as she stomped away. “Hey!” he said, and despite her best intentions she slowed and turned around. She kept walking backwards. “Katniss, please. Come talk to me. I hate goal, it’s boring as hell.”

_I want to_ , she thought. _Goddamn it, Peeta. You’ve no idea_. If he knew he was on her list, near the very top, in truth, would he be so eager to let her in? Shit, no. She imagined them standing far apart, each holding the end of a rope. All through high school she’d dug her heels into the dirt and tried not to trip up, towards _him_. Gale knew this, and laughed at her because of it, sometimes bitterly, sometimes when they drank too much in the shade of the pine trees, when she let her guard down and said things she really, really should be keeping secret. 

Katniss closed her eyes. “Will you be here tomorrow?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said, so fast she’d barely finished the question. She parted her eyelids and squinted at him in the long shadows. Was he actually bouncing? She nodded weakly.

“Then okay.”

“ _Mellark!_ ”

They turned in unison to see Coach Abernathy jogging across the field, whistle hanging off his lips. Peeta grinned. He did a sort of wave at her, fingers dancing below the line of his hips as he spun on the spot and almost danced into a run. She heard his apology echoing distantly, and Abernathy’s reply, dripping in sarcasm. Katniss watched the two figures melt into the rest of the team, a sea of yellow and white, with Peeta in his blue goalkeeper strip standing out like a flowerhead left untouched in the wide green grass. 

She ran a hand over her stomach, breathing deeply.

How utterly apt was it that she’d somehow agreed to a date... in a goal square. It was a terrible idea, but maybe, she thought, maybe she didn’t care. 

Prim could keep _Jane Eyre_ tonight.


End file.
